1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pet grooming tools. More particularly, the present invention relates to brushes and combs that are designed to straighten tangled pet fur or hair and to remove mats. The tool is effective in grooming pets with double coats.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many products used to groom pets including, primarily, dogs and cats. One significant focus of these products is the care of pet hair or fur. There are brushes, combs and rakes, for example, that are designed to smooth and untangle hair/fur and/or to remove mats. A mat is a mass of hair/fur that is twisted or stuck together. That mass includes loose fur or hair twisted together with attached fur or hair. Mats can cause skin problems when close to the skin and left untreated. It can be painful to the pet to remove a mat. Cats and dogs with a double coat are particularly susceptible to matting and therefore most in need of a suitable grooming tool. It is noted that the double coat of an animal is formed of an outer hair layer, or “guard coat” and an underlying fur layer or “under coat”.
Existing solutions for tending to mats and other sorts of hair/fur entanglements utilize either tightly grouped arrays of short bristles or tines to rake the coat uniformly to remove primarily loosened guard coat hair. Other such solutions are combs or brushes including long simple columnar tines arranged in a row or matrix that reach the underlying under coat. However, the long tines can get caught in the mats, causing discomfort or injury to the animal as the tines are dragged through the coat. That discomfort or injury may be caused by either or both of: a) the sharp ends of the tines scraping the skin; and b) dragging both loose and attached fur wherein the attached fur may be pulled out of the skin. Other such solutions are combs or brushes including arrays of arcuate blades with a sharpened leading edge designed to cut apart matted fur. Because matted fur is entangled with healthy attached fur, these devices indiscriminately cut healthy attached fur along with loose matted fur. They also remove both guard coat and under coat, although it is desirable to remove primarily under coat fur that is loosened and/or entangled, rather than both the under coat and the guard coat.
Another limitation associated with using existing grooming tools that include tines functioning as cutting blades is that they cut and remove healthy fur while also removing mat. There are two types of grooming tools in this category. One type is similar to a barber's thinning razor. Another type employs arrays of blade-like tines with a sharpened leading edge designed to cut apart matted fur. While these may be effective at mat removal, it is often undesirable to remove healthy, attached fur with the mat. Moreover, the groomer must be particularly cautious with these tools as they are sharp enough to injure the groomer or the pet if not used very carefully. These and other tools intended to remove mats can be expensive without being sufficiently effective at the task and they can cause pain or injury for all involved.
What is needed is a pet grooming tool that is effective at untangling fine-textured pet hair/fur including the removal of mats by mainly leaving attached fur in place and removing loose fur/hair. What is needed is such a tool that is configured to accomplish that functionality while minimizing the potential for harm to the pet and the groomer. Further, what is needed is such a tool that is easy to use and reasonably priced.